1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic document feeder for allowing documents stacked on a document tray to be automatically fed to and read by an image reading section one-by-one, and an image forming apparatus, such as a copy machine, a facsimile machine or a complex machine thereof, which is equipped with the automatic document feeder.
2. Description of the Background Art
An automatic document feeder is designed to feed documents from a stack of documents placed on a document tray to an image reading section disposed at a given position, one-by-one, so as to allow data described in each of the documents to be read by the image reading section, and then eject the documents onto a document catch tray in sequence. This automatic document feeder can be subject to the risk of a paper jam occurring in a document transport path extending from the document tray to the document catch tray.
With a view to facilitating an operation for clearing a paper jam, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-106086 discloses an automatic document feeder having an openable and closable feeder cover 100, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13. More specifically, the automatic document feeder comprises the feeder cover 100 designed to be changed in posture between a closed position (see FIG. 12) and an opened position (see FIG. 13), and an intermediate transport unit 101 designed to be swingably moved in a direction toward which the feeder cover 100 has been opened, whereby each of a first transport path 103 leading to an image reading section 102 and a second transport path 104 extending from the image reading section 102 can be widened and exposed to outside to allow an operator to visually check a document in the first and second transport paths 103, 104 from a position obliquely above the automatic document feeder.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-274694 also discloses an automatic document feeder having an openable and closable feeder cover 110, as shown in FIGS. 14 and 15. In this automatic document feeder, the feeder cover 110 is moved from a closed position (see FIG. 14) to an opened position (see FIG. 15), and then an inner guide 111 is swingingly moved (opened) in the same direction as an opening direction of the feeder cover 110. In conjunction with the swing movement of the inner guide 111, a feed guide 112 is moved in such a manner as to allow first and second transport paths 114, 115 defined, respectively, leading to and extending from an image reading section 113 to be widened and exposed to outside.
Typically, when used with an image forming apparatus, an automatic document feeder is mounted on an upper portion of the image forming apparatus. Thus, if a paper jam (document jam) occurs in the conventional automatic document feeders as disclosed in the Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 11-106086 and 2002-274694, an operator has to open the feeder cover (100; 110) and look the transport paths (103, 104; 114, 115) from a position obliquely above the image forming apparatus so as to visually check how a document jams in the transport paths (103, 104; 114, 115). This operation involves a problem that an operator who has difficulty in looking the automatic document feeder from a position obliquely above the image forming apparatus, for example, who is in a wheelchair, can hardly check a paper jam by his/her own eyes.